


Where Do We Go From Here?

by jjuu1l



Series: Junior Avengers and Friends [8]
Category: Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: F/F, M/M, Tags to be added as new chapters go up, i've waited several months and i'm just gonna post this bc reasons, idk what this is
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-07-04 18:05:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15846567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjuu1l/pseuds/jjuu1l
Summary: Violet is in a coma. Her parents are fighting an interdimensional parasite. Virginia is somewhere in the multiverse. And Katie's in high school.So where do they go from there?





	1. Prologue

“Hey? Earth to Katie!” A voice yelped above her head. If she was actually asleep then the yelling would’ve been acceptable, but she wasn’t so it only made her more upset than usual.

When she raised her head she saw a boy with messy dark brown hair, he was scraggly at best and wearing clothes that never fit at worst. Over the past weeks they’d become something akin to friends. Or, as close to friends as she could allow herself to get under the circumstances.

“I don’t understand how you sleep through all of our classes and aren’t failing yet.” He commented as she gathered her books up in her arms. They were the only two students left in the classroom, and it wasn’t likely that anyone else would come in as it was eighth hour. If she had to guess, they were probably some of the only students in the entire building. Unless there was basketball practice, then the basketball team and their girlfriends would be stuck in the gym for the next two hours.

“I learn through osmosis.” She joked knowing that she’d be able to google the answers to her homework later, and if not, well then she wouldn’t be here long enough to worry about that.

“No one learns through osmosis, that’s just what slackers like you say to get through the day.” He shot back, and she rewarded him with an eyeroll. It wasn’t a long walk to her locker and before she was ready they were walking down the hallway leading to the front steps.

To their left was the gym. Full of music that was much too loud and guys that acted like asshats whenever they saw a pretty girl. She’d stayed away from the basketball kids at her old school, as most of them were rude to Violet or just insisted on being unreasonable whenever she attempted conversation with them. Not all of them were bad, but enough were that she was weary of all of them. The boy next to her seemed to get distracted as they walked by the doors with windows. Ending up a couple of paces behind her.

“You’re so gone with him.” She commented as they exited the school. A couple of stragglers sat on the front steps, talking about something or another as Katie and her friend weaved through them. She couldn’t help but overhear a few rumors of them seeing a kid in full metal armor flying around at night.

                “I am not! I just think we should be more supportive of our basketball team.” He shot back, moving to kick at her legs. Katie saw this coming and moved out of the way before he got close enough to do any damage. A stacked pile of books went flying under his foot and they spent a couple minutes helping to put them back in order. The two were already unpopular enough that any risk of losing their current spots on the food chain would practically be social suicide.

                When they reached the bottom of the stairs the boy next to her froze up. It only took a second for her to spot his cause of distress.

                “You go around the block, I’ll distract Kessler.” She offered turning to block the bully’s view of Billy.

                It’d taken longer than she would’ve liked to get him to be honest with her about the bullying, not that she really blamed him for not immediately trusting her. How was he supposed to know that she was his future daughter and that she completely understood what he was going through? No one in their right mind would believe something like that.

                He peaked around her shoulder, grinding his teeth into his lower lip. It wasn’t hard to tell that he didn’t like these escape plans any more than he liked their almost daily chemistry homework. But at one point or another it had become necessary. And Katie could hold her own against Kessler. She could hold her own against anyone really, as long as they didn’t have powers.

                “I’ll see you in a block.” He frowned as he turned and sped walked away.

                She turned and plastered a smile on. It would only take a couple of minutes before she could get out of this stupid conversation several less brain cells. He spotted her from half a yard away and made his way over to her.

                This was going to be _sooo_ much fun.


	2. Chapter 1: Katie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Highschool is difficult. Highschool with the teen versions of your parents? Even harder.

                “Are you kidding me? The wasp is such a great hero!” She argued bumping their hips together as they approached a nearly empty string of lunch tables. A couple of students were spread across it’s length, with books and papers strewn around them. No time to do your homework like the hour beforehand.

                “Almost all of her arcs are tied to male superheroes, and she stayed with Hank Pym for way too long.” Billy replied as if that was a good enough reason to dislike the Wasp. It was a decent reason on the surface, but the more Katie thought about it, the angrier it made her.

                “Because she’s a woman trying to crack open the Avenger’s little men’s club and introduce more women! It was only under her authority that more than a couple of women were recruited _and_ getting out of a toxic situation with someone you love is difficult! Besides, it’s not like my favorite avenger is as problematic as yours.” She retorted dropping her lunch tray on an emptier table. He flushed across from her and opened his mouth to reply before being rudely interrupted by some nameless jock calling out from across the lunchroom.

                At the mention of her name Katie clenched her fists. It wasn’t that she didn’t think she was attractive, objectively it made sense, but she never saw it. Her hair was frizzy and uncontrollable on a _good_ day, not to mention the fact her legs were lanky and always seemed to be tripping her up or stepping on someone else. At her old school people usually didn’t award her a second glance, but here someone had obviously deemed her worthy of all the attention.

                Now if she could only figure out who that was and tell them to stop.

                “Ha ha, like you don’t love the Scarlet Witch as much as I do.” He jabbed his plastic fork in her direction. Referencing her first day of school, she’d taken extra care to dress in something that reminded her of home, of the people she loved and the reason she was here.

                Which meant she resembled her grandma almost to a T.

                She’d chosen a red dress that pooled on the floor if she wasn’t wearing heels, throwing on a black head band to keep her hair out of her eyes on her way out of her hotel room. Matched with a messenger bag and leather jacket, people had jokingly called her the school’s very own witch all day. It wasn’t a purposeful move, but one that came with quite a few consequences anyways.

                Luckily, one of those consequences was the early approval of a Billy Kaplan.

                “No one loves the Scarlet Witch as much as you do.” She stabbed at her food before taking a large bite and delving into her own thoughts. They led back to the usual places.

                Was it wrong to lie to the people who would be your future parents? How did you approach that subject anyways? Just bring it up? Hint at it until they got it? Just blurt it out at the first opportunity?

                ‘Hey! My name’s Katie and I’m your future daughter!’ She’d tried that before and it hadn’t worked out very well. Instead of believing her, they’d locked her up and she’d subsequently gotten possessed. Not to mention that she’d have no way of getting back to her parents if something went wrong.

                Besides, they’d put her here because she would be safe, even though she didn’t agree with them. She had powers! She could fight! How did separating her from everyone she’s ever known help them in any way?

                Instead, of fighting for the people she loved, she was sitting in a noisy high school cafeteria sitting across from the boy who would eventually grow up to be her dad. It was weird to say the least. Though she was glad she was at least _friends_ with her dad, gifting her a sense of familiarity in this universe that was similar but that still wasn’t hers. She’d considered making friends with her other dad, but he was still friends with Norris.

                And as much as it pained her, she refused to even associate with him. He was an asshole at the best of times, and a scumbag at the worst, which was most of the time. She couldn’t even keep track of how many times she’d seen him checking her out. It made her skin crawl to think that some poor girl was going to get stuck with this mess of a human being and that she’d want to stay with him.

                “Katie! Dude, calm down, picking a fight isn’t going to do you any favors. They just wanna rile you up. What did you do after you got home anyways? You sounded really busy last night.” Billy asked from across the lunch table. He was pushing around something that vaguely resembled the tater-tot casserole they’d both picked up in the lunch line.

                Yesterday had ended like it normally did, her and her future dad walking back to his house. She’d stay over and do homework until they were both done, and then she’d walk back to the hotel her dads had set her up in. From there she would use her laptop to access the interdimensional database her dads thought she didn’t know about. They contained mostly emails too and from some of the big leaders in the hero world. Her dads were both listed on the database with updates listed hourly on their whereabouts and the missions they were going on. Checking in on them helped ease the almost constant knots in her stomach.

                Last night had been as routine as it had been the past couple of weeks. She’d checked in on her dads, searching for anything to do with Uncle Tommy, David Alleyne, or Violet afterwards. She hardly ever found anything concerning Violet or David Alleyne on the database. A small part of her hoped that it was because neither of them were getting into trouble, and were hiding out somewhere safe. Though she knew it was more likely that Violet had also been taken to a safer location, and that David was likely writing most of these reports. She hoped the two of them were together, for as long as she could remember Violet had always complained that she hated being all by herself, even when sleeping. It felt too much like her old life, she’d admitted once after a particularly bad nightmare.

                “Sorry _dude,_ I just had some relationship stuff to deal with last night.” Which wasn’t entirely a lie. In her searching she’d found an extensive report on the location of former Hydra sleeper agent, Virginia Chavez.

                It’d taken all of her strength to keep from researching everything she could on Virginia. She’d managed to keep her research to just that one file, but her fingers were still itching to get back to her laptop. Look further into Virginia’s profile, try and find her, ask her why she’d done everything she’d done.

                “Oh~,” He nodded his head like he could relate. “I can’t relate, but if you want to complain about him-”

                “Her.” She interrupted, taking the opportunity to take the biggest bite of greasy salad that she could. Watching as the gears in Billy’s head spin was an interesting thing, but before either of them got the chance to speak again. They were interrupted.

                “Hey, sweetheart, what’re you doing sitting all the way over here?” An arm wrapped itself around Katie’s waist and it took all of her strength not to immediately attack the boy next to her.

                “None of your business.” She replied taking his arm off her waist, only to have it reappear around her shoulders. From across the table Billy’s eyes flickered between the two of them, he knew first hand how unwise it was to catch Katie unaware on a bad day. And it wouldn’t take a genius to put two and two together to realize she was far from comfortable with someone putting their arm around her waist or shoulders. “Now please get your arm off of me.” She raised her voice, hoping the additional attention of the tables to either side of them would encourage him to just do what she asked.

                It didn’t, if anything, it egged him on even more.

                “Oh come on, it’s not that big of a deal, I do this with all my friends, and aren’t we friends?” He asked, and if Katie didn’t know what he did to people who were his ‘friends’ then she would’ve considered it. But she knew what he was like, she knew how much of an asshole he was, and she refused to stand for any of this.

                “No, we’re not, I don’t even think you could tell me what my name is.” She responded trying to peal his arm off her shoulders. With every act of rebellion against his words he seemed to grow more and more upset. Hopefully he’d grow upset enough to just leave her alone. Though she doubted that would be the outcome.

                From the corner of her eye she noticed a mop of blonde hair stand up and start walking towards her and Billy’s table. She hoped it was someone willing to intervene, but as the mop of blonde passed their table and Greg reasserted his arm around Katie’s waist, she knew things weren’t going to be that easy.

                “Greg, she said-” Billy finally said, drawing Greg’s attention away from Katie. He shot a smile that was sickly sweet across the table to Billy, who almost backed down, but thankfully didn’t. “s-she said she wanted to be let go.” Instead, he rolls his eyes, and doesn’t move his arm. Katie considered using a quick move that her Aunt Kate had taught her after a particularly rude encounter with a boy she’d momentarily like. But then he leaned in and whispered in her ear.

                “Come on sweetheart, wouldn’t you rather hang out with a real man instead of this fag?” He pulled back with a smug smile, like he’d just given her irrefutable evidence that she should leave with him. Except that he didn’t seem to account for the pure rage that was coursing through her veins in that moment. Didn’t account for the fact that she despised his very existence at some points and didn’t account for the fact that she could take him down.

                This last mistake became clear when she took his arm and used it to flip him over onto the ground. He landed on the checkered ground with a loud thud that hushed the lunch room around them. Almost as soon as the silence fell over them, it vanished. Whispers taking up the empty air as Katie knew the rumors were going to start spreading. Several of Greg’s friends hurried to his side, hissing words like ‘crazy bitch’ and ‘worthless banshee’ which was especially creative for them. Greg shakily stood and glared at her.

                “Oh, come on _sweetheart,_ it didn’t hurt that much. Did it?” She raised an eyebrow as he skulked away. From the corner of her eye she saw several teachers walking towards them with a purpose unmatched to anything else. Knowing she’d probably spend several hours trying to sort this ‘mess’ all out, she grabbed her apple and chugged her milk.

                Billy was looking at her like she was insane, which wasn’t entirely wrong. Disrupting a timeline like she just did? It wasn’t exactly smart but letting an asshole like Greg Norris think that he could just get away with shit like that wasn’t any better.

                “I’ll see you after school?” She asked, training her emotions into something that hopefully resembled calm.

                She couldn’t lose her dad. It was already hell not being able to communicate with them, and losing the man who would eventually be her dad? That would probably end her.

                “I’ll meet you by your locker.” He smiled at her and it eased the hot stones in her stomach. Getting out of this was going to be difficult as all hell. But if being the formerly non-powered leader of a group of teen superheroes taught her anything, it was that difficult could be easily overcome.

                A teacher she didn’t really recognize asked her to go straight to the principal’s office and Katie didn’t put up a fight. Her dads had told her that she should keep a low profile in this universe.

                And really, how hard could that be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm going to be honest, most of this story has yet to be written, which means while I want to continue uploading new chapters on Thursdays, if I don't feel like I have enough stockpiled so that I can consistently post, I might post on a later date.  
> Also!  
> I truly appreciate those of you who comment, it's really rewarding to see that these chapters are appreciated and that you guys really enjoy them. Thank you so much!


	3. Chapter 2: Ginny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ingrid took another deep breath and closed her eyes. She looked ready to burn everything within a 20-mile radius and sacrifice it to keep her sanity in place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this the best chapter I've ever written? No  
> Am I posting it anyways and will probably edit it later? Yes  
> Do I hope y'all enjoy it? You know it

                _“Babe, please come back to bed!” Katie whined pulling the covers further over her head. Looking down at her girlfriend, she couldn’t help but want to get back into bed with her. She looked too cute with her bedhead and when she pouted like that, but there was also the fact that if her dads found them together, in Katie’s room, she would probably regret being born._

_“I can’t, besides I’ll see you later at school.” She responded slipping on her shoes and throwing her hair up in a messy bun. Behind her she could hear Katie groan, likely for Virginia waking her up so early in the morning. But if she hadn’t gotten up so early, then- well, you could probably guess what would’ve happened to her._

_She leaned over and kissed her girlfriend before grabbing her jacket and phone. Katie frowned as she climbed out of the window and before she got very far down Katie shot over to the window and blew a kiss down to her. Virginia rolled her eyes, and continued to climb down the trestles knowing full well how painful it was to fall down and land on her ass. Katie stayed at her window until she reached the ground and waved down to her before retreating back into her room._

_Virginia smiled as she crossed the street and started back towards her house. She was so lucky! She had everything she could ever-_

“Ginny! Wake up! We have training today!” Someone that sounded speciously like not-Katie yelled in her ear.

Her eyes flew open and she was greeted with the underside of the top bunk. Just to her left Ingrid was getting dressed, each movement purposeful and sure. Something that contrasted dangerously with Cara, who was a few inches away from her face. Her clothes were practically hanging off of her, due to the fact that they weren’t her clothes, but Violet’s.

                “You could’ve just shaken me awake.” She complains as Cara moves back towards her own dresser. Despite the fact they’ve been rooming together for weeks now, she’s still not used to either of her roommates.

                Ingrid rolls her eyes at the two of them and goes back to pulling on her uniform. It’s almost a carbon copy of the boys’ uniform, except for the addition of her hijab. The navy pants matched her hijab and the stripes on the uniform shirt, she managed to make it look graceful all the same. In a way Ginny had learned only Ingrid could.

                Cara on the other hand was a demon. Despite the fact she couldn’t see (Ginny still didn’t entirely understand the whole ‘world on fire’ thing no matter how many times Cara tried to explain it to her) she left her clothes all over their tiny room, and constantly complained about how loud everyone else was being.

                She wasn’t too bothered by the complaining, but she couldn’t help the fact she breathed!! She also held her tongue because she knew how worried Cara was about Violet.

                The past couple of weeks hadn’t been easy on any of them, not with the Mr. Altman-Kaplan’s decision to separate Katie from all of them. Everyone _understood_ how dangerous it was to have her around in their current predicament, but that didn’t mean that they had to _like_ it. Ingrid was struggling to fill Katie’s team leader position, as Cara was in no place to take over any more responsibility than she already had.

                “Hurry and get ready, roll is in fifteen minutes. And if we’re all there on time we get to visit the universe we’ve docked in.” Ingrid added pulling her hair back into a low ponytail before pulling on her hijab. And despite her calm tone, that was a threat if she’d ever heard one.

                They didn’t dock often, in fear of catching the attention of _her_. So, allowing their team off the ship was a big show of trust. Not to mention how easily it’d become to rile everyone up, no one was exempt from the cabin fever that’d been raging on. Everyone had been begging to be let out for weeks now.

                So, if she screwed up and prevented everyone from getting a chance to get off this damn ship? It was likely they would throw her into the void without a second thought.

                There was also the fact that everyone on board already had mixed opinions about her joining their team. With some not minding as much and others upset at the mere sight of her. It had thrown the crew into chaos the first few weeks on board, but luckily, they’d been coming to terms with the fact that she was here, and here to stay.

                At least she hoped they had.

                “Do we have any information on the universe?” She asked popping her back and laughing when Cara flipped her off. It was one of her least favorite sounds, and they both knew Ginny did it just to annoy her.

                “It’s like Earth, currently in a fall-ish season, you could probably get away with wearing shorts or a skirt.” Ingrid replied giving herself a once over in the mirror before turning back to the other two girls. They work together in the silence. Cara picking out clothes and Ginny taking the time to switch out the colors that clash with ones that don’t. Ingrid hands over the wrist bands that double as communicators as they finish up their routines.

                Together they walk down the tiled corridors towards the control room. Their footsteps echo off the white walls and for a second Ginny is reminded of the Hydra facilities she’d apparently spent years within. The way people looked at her, clinically, assessing her for any kinds of flaws, and reworking her ‘programming’ to suit their own needs.

                She shivers at the thoughts and tries to push them back into the locked box they’d escaped from. It wasn’t that she necessarily knew how these memories worked, they would spring forth in her mind several times a day and leave her gasping for breaths that she suddenly didn’t have. Adding more and more doubt to the possibility that she was getting ‘better’, that she was in any way rebelling against her programming. At any given minute she was fighting back the fear that she would suddenly shift back, and Ginny would be gone, replaced once again with Virginia.

                Cara knocks into her, shooting her a look that says too much for Ginny to truly understand. Her first instinct is to rolled her eyes, but then she remembers that despite being a superhero and the most dangerous out of all of them, she also can’t see facial expressions.

                “It’s nothing.” The words are barely audible to her own ears but Cara just rolls her eyes and shakes her head at them. It’s a constant surprise whenever Ginny remembers Cara can’t see. She emotes and fights in a way that makes it clear she’s talented. So talented, Ginny guesses, that she doesn’t really need to see. But it’s still a surprise nonetheless when she makes a blind joke, or when she sometimes shows up in clothes that are horribly mismatched.

                “Hey! That’s mine!” Someone yells from the other side of the door that leads to the control room. Ingrid takes a deep breath before squaring her shoulders and marching onwards.

                Every-time they headed into training or anything that had to do with their teammates, Ingrid always had to ready herself. Ginny had heard from Nash that Ingrid hated being the leader, despite the fact that Ingrid had immediately stepped up to take the role.

                “She felt obligated too.” He’d said when they were sparring. “Katie and her were close, and I think this is a way to honor her memory.” Ginny had commented on the fact that Katie wasn’t actually dead, so Ingrid’s position was only temporary. Nash had gone quiet.

                They knew Katie wasn’t dead, mostly because of the weekly updates David Alleyne sent them about Katie’s whereabouts and Violet’s current state. You could always tell when he sent in his updates. Everyone got quieter, smaller, as if trying to make up for the space that their comrades weren’t taking up right next to them. Ginny didn’t know how to feel about the updates.

                Was there a curious part of her that believed Violet would be better any day now? Yes, and that part wanted so badly to apologize for hurting Katie. Wanted to apologize for hurting all of them. But there was also the part that had grown to become friends with Cara and knew how utterly gone she was with Violet. That part knew how tragic it would be for their love story to end before it’d ever really begun.

                Then there was Katie…

                Ginny didn’t know how to feel about Katie. If she was honest with herself, and after the whole ‘oh I’m a Hydra Agent?!’ situation she was trying extremely hard to be, she knew exactly how she felt about Katie Altman-Kaplan.

                She was irrevocably, undoubtably in love with her.

                How did she know this to be true? Because sometimes, when she was all alone, wishing that they could all go back to a year ago, all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and have Katie run her hands through her hair. She wanted to hold hands and hug and embarrass her with overly sappy love poems that didn’t rhyme as well as she pretended they did.

                These emotions lead to the first of many, many questions. Was it her own feelings that were like this? Like with her blooming friendship with Cara and her ever growing respect for Ingrid’s ability to put her team first. Or was it part of her programming? Like her former hatred of the color pink and her fleeting love of kettle corn.

                She truly could not tell. While most of her personality seemed to be true to herself, some odd bits were not. It seemed like every other day she was figuring out something that was another falsehood in her maze of lies. Nothing was safe from examination, and in turn she’d realized how close her personality had really been to the persona Virginia had been.

                Which was why she was having so much trouble with these feelings. How was she supposed to test the validity of these feelings when she couldn’t interact with Katie? Her fantasies only went so far, and even then she couldn’t be entirely sure.

                “Ginny!” Ingrid stood in front of her looking vaguely upset, more than anything she looked tired. They’d apparently entered the control room, several of the crew members lingering near their stations. Even though there wasn’t much to monitor when they were docked, as they all knew from countless ‘what to do if the crew ever mysteriously disappears and you’re left on your own’ training seminars they had to attend. She’d never asked why the seminars were called that, and at this point she was too afraid to ask.

 Her teammates were also staring her down.

“What?” She asked, glancing from person to person hoping someone would inform her as to what was going on. Nash and Cara weren’t any help, as both of them were facing Ingrid, not even bothering to look in her direction. While David and Jack were still arguing over what looked like a wrist watch.

Ingrid took another deep breath and closed her eyes. She looked ready to burn everything within a 20-mile radius and sacrifice it to keep her sanity in place.

“I asked if you were ready to leave the ship.” Before she thought twice Ginny nodded. Ingrid visibly deflated, turning on her heel and leading them towards the doorway that led to wherever they’d docked.

Nash and Cara fell into line right behind her, Nash muttering something about Slushies whilst Cara made a disgusted noise. Jack and David began to follow after them still arguing about the wristwatch that Ginny was halfway ready to just take away from them. Nash and Cara’s backs disappeared into the glowing light when it happened.

The room went dark. Screams sounded out all around her. She and the boys were thrown to the floor. The only thing lighting up the room was the portal, which emitted an eerie green glow. Ginny threw her arms around both boys, hoping to keep them in place. She didn’t need either of them running off at a time like this.

                A trio of silhouettes appeared in the doorway. None of which look like the three teammates they’d just been following into another dimension. In the pit of her stomach Ginny felt something shift dangerously. This wasn’t going to end well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll leave the first little bit up to you to decide what they did, because I couldn't choose myself, anyways I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and wanted to tell you that I might be changing my schedule up a little more just to find a way to balance school and writing two stories and working on a third one that I'm not even sure I'm going to post yet. I'm either going to post every other Thursday or whenever I finish a future chapter so I have enough that I can post with some consistency. Please tell me which one y'all would prefer.


	4. Chapter 3: Violet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Was it smart to immediately run away from your kind-of-maybe-parent-if-you-could-even-really-call-you-his-daughter right after awaking from a coma? No, no it really wasn’t. But was that what Violet did? 
> 
> Well, I think we both already know the answer to that question.

Was it smart to immediately run away from your kind-of-maybe-parent-if-you-could-even-really-call-you-his-daughter right after awaking from a coma? No, no it really wasn’t. But was that what Violet did?

Well, I think we both already know the answer to that question.

All she could focus on was moving. To get out and stretch her legs after, what had it been? Days? Weeks? Months? No one around her had looked too much older or different from what she remembered, so maybe it’d only been a couple of hours. Though, as she took her first couple of steps outside of the facility, she knew it had to have been longer than that.

For one, her legs were like jelly. Each step was difficult and somewhat painful, though with her cellular regeneration they were soon working better and better. The world around her wasn’t the same one she’d left behind, mostly because the world she’d left behind was in the middle of summer and it was clearly now fall. She didn’t get past the state line before someone caught up to her.

“Violet! Holy shit.” Standing just off to her right was Tommy. His hair was blown in every direction and it took a second for her to distinguish his messy hair from the clouds. When he finally pushed his hair out of his face he stared down at her for a few seconds, taking her in.

She’d be lying if she didn’t mention it made her uncomfortable. For her entire life he’d ignored her. Pretended she didn’t exist and hoped that if he pretended hard enough then she would just go away. Mission after mission, day after day, mile after mile, he ran and fought and exhausted himself like that would erase her existence. So how was she supposed to not want to run when he looked at her like she was back from the grave?

“Hi.” She broke the silence and was immediately aware of how long it must’ve been since she’d spoken. Her throat felt like sandpaper and her tongue felt heavier than anything she’d ever lifted.

Before she had a chance to move, or attempt another word, his arms were around her shoulders. Pressing her into his chest in something resembling a hug. It felt…

Weird. Really, really, weird.

“We thought you died.” Which was another thing she wasn’t expecting him to say. Then again speaking had never really been a thing they’d done. It’d mostly been Violet’s longing for a parent who wouldn’t pay attention and Tommy stubbornly averting his eyes when their eyes met.

She felt a bit of hope that she hadn’t let spark in too many years begin to sizzle in her chest. Though she didn’t let herself give in to the hug, she did allow that hope to spark in her chest.

“Why did you run away?” He asked pulling back and clutching her arms so tightly part of Violet’s mind wondered if he was cutting off circulation. It should’ve been upsetting that he was holding her like that, but the smallest twisted part of her was reveling in his attention.

“Why do you care?” She asked, knowing that probably wasn’t what she wanted to say, but needing the answer. How many times had she run off before this without anyone but Katie and her parents to come after her? How many times had she ran across him in those moments and sped past without him changing his direction whatsoever?

Too many. Too many times.

“Because- because you could’ve gotten hurt worse than what’s already happened!” He argued loosening his grip on her arms as she winced. She didn’t raise her eyes to meet him, not having enough strength to know risk the disappointment in his eyes.

“I broke both of my legs before.” She stated locking eyes at a spot just above his left shoulder. There was a nice tree there, with colored leaves and a cute little bench underneath it. If she thought really hard about it, the bench and tree were familiar. “I’ve sprained my ankle and ran halfway across the world to fight ninjas.” That was before her family, before she began to fall, fall, fall unrelenting for a girl who barely ever smiled, before she and Katie became sisters in everything but blood. “I once ran so fast over water that I nearly evaporated half a lake because I was so upset.” She could feel her throat wanting to close in on itself, though she couldn’t really tell if it was her emotions causing this reaction or the fact she’d apparently been in a coma long enough for Tommy to realize that he actually cared about her.

“I didn’t-” He looked at the ground like he was a teenager being reprimanded for coming home past curfew. Like this wasn’t a complete change in his character that came out of nowhere for her.

“I spent, my entire life, trying to get your attention. I did everything.” She whispered, her throat feeling less and less like sandpaper. “ _Everything_ , to get you to care. So, why now? Why do you care now?”

The world around them was oppressively silent.

“I fucked up. I should’ve been there for you, but I wasn’t. I wasn’t ready for any of it. I’m- I’m still not entirely ready, even though I know you deserve it.” He still wouldn’t meet her gaze, and in that moment, she realized how serious he was being. How different he was acting around her, how _grown up_ it all was. He wasn’t teasing or joking to lighten the mood. There wasn’t even any snapping to spiral them into a screaming match.

He was _trying,_ and she didn’t know what to do with that knowledge.

“Tommy! I swear to god if you don’t answer me right now I’m going to- I- Just answer me!” A voice sounded loudly from the communicator in his ear. She was somewhat surprised to hear the voice and nearly bolted away.

Tommy flinched away, not taking the communicator out and suffering the sound straight to his eardrum. A quick glance showed him that Violet had yet to leave, so he reached his hand out to her and continued speaking in a soft voice she’d never heard before.

“I can’t take back everything I’ve done to you, but I want to try and make things better. Will you give me that opportunity?” He asked looking more nervous than she’d ever seen him. It felt like a twilight-zone moment, as if the whole world had turned to black and white. The only way to go back into vivid color was when she gave the word.

And how long had she dreamed of this moment? How long had she waited for him to ask to be apart of her life? To be the semi-parent semi-relative that Violet had always wanted him to be for her? So many days had passed by with her fruitlessly wishing for him to say these exact things. And now she found herself with the urge to run away.

“I don’t know.” She answered honestly, which was the only answer she had.

He nodded but didn’t retract his hand. Instead he nodded over his shoulder to where David must’ve been. A part of her didn’t want to follow him. It wanted to run away, but this was also a part of herself she’d stopped listening to years ago. 

Because living a life by fear’s rules was no life at all.

“So, Katie does have magical powers that’re likely triggered by intense emotional stimuli?” She asked raising an eyebrow at David. For the longest time she didn’t understand why people wore colored glasses, at their best they seemed impractical and at the worst they must’ve been distracting. On David however she could understand them, just somewhat more than before.

They sat at a small round table with Tommy pacing just to the left of them, while David’s eyes flickered between the two of them. Probably cataloging their similarities and differences, that’s what most people tended to do when they met her. They brought up their thoughts on Thomas Shepard and compared them to Violet Bishop.

“More or less, yes,” He responded with a sad nod.

“Then where is she right now? She’s probably blaming herself for what happened, and if that hasn’t sent her into a downward spiral then-” She made a quick gesture with her hand that would mean something to Katie or Kate or Ingrid. But only rewarded her a raised eyebrow from David. “I mean, is she okay? And when can I see her?”

David frown, and Tommy stopped pacing. They exchanged a look that spoke volumes louder than words did. Then Tommy’s eyes flickered from David to Violet and back again, David gave a tiny nod that must’ve made sense to Tommy because less than a second later he was gone. The only thing that proved he was ever with them was a set of tracks that’d been burned into the floor from his consistent pacing.

She made a move to get up and follow him, but must’ve thought better of it, because she sat back down. Frowning she looked back up at David. He didn’t want her to ask where Katie was, or whether or not she could see her. Because his answer would have to be no.

Violet found that in that moment she really didn’t care about what he wanted.

“Where is Katie? And why are we hiding?” He took a little longer to respond, mulling the words over in his head like he always did.

She was struck with a memory that wasn’t hers. She was sitting with David, with him sitting across from her, eating cheap noodles and nodding along to what she was saying. Despite the fact that her words were toeing the line with being too fast to understand, he seemed to be listening intently. Interrupting her every couple of minutes to comment on something or ask a question.

This wasn’t her memory, she knew it wasn’t. But she allowed the familiarity of that moment to wash over her. To calm the nerves that had arisen the moment they began to explain what had happened to Katie. All she could hope for was that Katie was safe, and not entirely miserable, and that she could join her as soon as possible.

“Violet, do you have some of Tommy’s memories?” He asked leaning forward, and in that moment, he looked so _tired._ As if the weight of the entire world rested against his shoulders, and instead of attempting to get rid of it. He was just resigned. Ready to accept that that weight would likely be there for the rest of his life.

“I think you already know the answer to that question.” She replied pulling her legs up into her chair and placing her head on her knees. He shook his head and they fell into silence.

Her mind wandered. First to Katie, and the hell she must be going through, then to Ingrid and Nash, and her mind briefly wondered about the twins. She hesitated to think about Virginia. Who even knew if she was still alive after all this time?

‘I suppose David would know.’ Her mind reminded, her eyes glancing over at him. But then she was reminded of how _tired_ he looked, which meant he much feel much worse on the inside. So, she decided to leave him alone.

Once her mind had finally stopped wondering about Virginia (and took a detour into thinking about Katie) before her mind finally fell onto the topic of Cara.

Wonderful, amazing, gorgeous, beautiful, fantastic- well, there were an innumerable amount of words that Violet could call Cara and that if she had the chance, she would call Cara. As long as Cara wasn’t dead, or also in a coma, or didn’t care about Violet in the way Violet cared about here. Though, almost everyone had caught onto Violet’s feelings for Cara, which probably meant that Cara had too, and if Cara had caught on, she probably would’ve said something to dissuade Violet.

Unless she wanted to let Violet down gently, something she’d never done before, because she didn’t think a relationship built on heroics could last. Which was a valid argument, there were countless cases of couples that would’ve been find had one or both of them not been heroes. There were even a few studies on how being involved with hero teams exponentially increased stress on the relationship.

She’d read that study a few months ago though, so maybe-

“They’re docked, if we’re lucky we can get Violet on and be off with five minutes to spare.” Tommy was suddenly in the room. The papers and Violet’s own hair reacted a few seconds after he’d finished his sentence.

“Who’s docked? Why’re they docked? Why haven’t you told me anything about what’s-" She doesn’t get the chance to finish her sentence, or even her thought when suddenly she’s standing in front of an interdimensional doorway. She’s read about these before, back when she was supposed to be studying for finals with Katie.

It’s supposed to connect a singular dimensional point with a semi-space ship/ semi-dimension hopper. They’re only a couple in this dimension, and most of the time whenever she’d asked to see one the scientists had looked at her like she was insane. Granted there was a lot of trouble that came with interdimensional doorways, such as if two parties attempted to enter one at the same time from opposite sides. But what was the likelihood of that happening?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're still here after my months-long hiatus:  
> THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! I appreciate the lack of 'when's the next chapter coming?' and 'It's been a month where's the chapter?'. I love these characters and story so much, and while this definitely isn't my best work, it's all i have right now as i attempt to juggle school, a part time job, and diabetes. It really means a lot to me that you've stuck around.
> 
> if you're not here after my months-long hiatus:  
> I don't blame you.

**Author's Note:**

> hi, despite the face that i said i knew where this story was going, i didn't. my original ideas had me introducing more and more new characters and that was just too difficult to manage with the cast i already have. not to mention it's probably really confusing for all of you to keep up with.  
> i hope you enjoy where the story is now headed, and you want to stick around and figure out where everyone ends up.


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